The present invention relates to a technique for searching for tone data.
Electronic musical instruments and the like which generate electronic tones can generate tones of various types (i.e., various tone colors). When selecting a tone color to be used, a user searches for a desired tone color by checking how individual tone colors sound. With an electronic musical instrument capable of generating great many tone colors, the number of tone colors that are presented as selection candidates becomes enormous, making tone color selection very difficult. Thus, there has been employed a technique which allows a user to perform a search by designating search conditions, to narrow down selection candidates to some degree. One example of such a technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-7416.
Performing a search to narrow down selection candidates can facilitate selection of a tone color. If a desired tone color has not been successfully searched out, the user has to make a search all over again using different search conditions. In such a case, the user has to re-figure out appropriate search conditions such that the desired tone color can be presented. Thus, a long time would be required before the desired tone color can be reached or successfully searched out. Sometimes, appropriate search conditions cannot be decided or figure out, and the user has to compromise on, or reluctantly accept, a tone color different from the desired tone color.